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2005-12-22

Best Gluten Free Brownie Mix- Taste Test Update

And the winner is...

Steve and I decided to do a taste test. Our goal? Finding the best tasting gluten-free brownie from a mix. Our criteria? A brownie so abundant in chocolaty goodness it would fool a gluten eater. Steve is the brownie baker in the family, so he was in on this project from the start.

I had him at, What if...

For the sake of simplicity we chose to compare the three gluten-free mixes readily available at our local markets: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Brownie Mix, Pamela's Irresistible Chocolate Brownie Mix, and The Gluten Free Pantry Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix.

I suppose I should mention here, in the spirit of full disclosure, we always add extra semi-sweet chocolate chips into our bar and cookie recipes; even if the recipe or mix might not call for chips; and if a recipe or mix does call for chips, we double it. We like our brownies decadent. Life is short.So, let's get to it.

Baked at sea level [read: humid] the texture was more cakey than chewy-gooey. Because of this, Steve voted these down.

Update note: For some reason, these brownies seem to bake even better in a drier climate. Because we are at high altitude now, I upped the oven temperature to 375 degrees F- as Pamela's suggests for high altitude- and they came out perfect.

An in-between amount of batter and I had to choose between my favorite large brownie pan and the smaller Pyrex; I chose to stretch it and used the big pan, so the brownies were thin. If I were to do it again, I'd try a muffin tin.

The texture was good and slightly chewy, not gooey, but passable.

The flavor was just okay. I'm not a fan of bean flours. There was something missing.

Our overall impression was, well. These taste a tad "gluten-free" and we would not bother making them as a real treat. We doubted a gluten-eater would be enamored.